and creating something you won't forget. Those involved know -- MAINTAINING support -- is half the battle. And as KITV4's Lara Yamada shows us ... ART is helping to outline the SEVERITY of the problem. CHRIS 451-00 It's falling off the radar. And the public concern is dropping because our federal agencies have not stepped into it like it should. Chris Pallister and his non- profit have already spent the past 10 years picking up one million pounds of debris from over a 1,000 miles of Alaska coastline. CHRIS 420-27 Were starting to find drums of chemicals coming up now, just last week we found a gallon drum of chemicals that just washed up on the beach. ANGELA NATS: 2355 A comb, a drink holder, flip-flops... Artist and 30-year teacher Angela Possi decided to do something big -- LITERALLY. Moving folks to tears, and into action, she says, by making gigantic art out of marine debris -- and the kind of stuff WE ALL throw away. ANGELA 1912- 20 I wanted it to be where people would want to take their picture next to it, and then they would have to tell people what they got their picture taken next to. NATS: 1001-07 So this is stuff that was actually injested by laysan albatross. Across the room, swirls of red and blue. As beautiful as it is tragic. But Kahi Pacarro of Sustainable Coastlines says, in all that trash... ...they're finding a different kind of light: STANDUP 2457-09 In just over 2 years some 6 tons of plastic from Hawaii's beaches has been transformed through a process to make some 50,000 bottles of plastic soap, with 50,000 bottles more already in production. KAHI 1345-52 They're able to see that this marine debris has been washing up on Hawaii beaches in such copious amounts we can actually make bottles out of it. All here for a four-day Pacific Rim Marine Debris Conference... They are sharing their stories, in the battle to keep the tide of plastic... at bay. ANGELA 2120-25 When people say I had no idea, I know I've done something right. Lara